Page 83 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

“Really?” Fraya snorted into her tankard.

Minha snorted, tossing nuts into her mouth. Jina went back to her squid.

Ranis shrugged. He wasn’t convinced. And neither was I. Theron slipped and was trying to cover it up.

I didn’t ask how he knew about the humming from the pure stones, but I would ask him when I got the chance.

Theron’s stern face didn’t waver, but his eyes held mine a beat too long. “Trust me. I promise I would do no wrong to you.”

The tavern door slammed open hard enough to crack against the wall. Five soldiers poured through, gold armor catching the lantern light, swords already drawn—tall, pale, ears tapering to points. The Seelie queen’s soldiers indeed.

Behind them, one of our carriage drivers from the port jabbed a finger toward our table, his voice frantic.

“There! That’s them, that’s the group.”

I went cold. The customers nearest the exit shoved through the door. The rest pressed back against the walls, chairs overturned between them as they braced for the fight about to begin.

Theron’s contact. His carriage driver. Though it wasn’t him directly, I didn’t stop the words from coming out sharp.

“And you want me to trust you?”

“Fuck!” Theron snarled.

Theron promised safety. He’d promised a contact who’d keep us hidden. And within hours, someone he’d paid had sold us out.

Theron’s chair scraped as he jolted off his seat. He met the first soldier before he reached our table, caught his sword arm and twisted it the wrong way with a sickening crack of bone. The soldier screamed. Theron whirled, fluid and fast, and drove his palm into the second soldier’s jaw at an angle that ended with a snap loud enough to silence the room.

Somewhere behind us, a cup hit the floor. Nobody moved to pick it up.

Jina grabbed the edge of the table, knuckles white, counting to herself and unable to look away. Minha got to her feet, dagger drawn, Ranis standing beside her. Fraya, on the other hand, kicked up her feet on Theron’s empty chair and tossed nuts in her mouth.

How could she be so calm?

The third soldier lunged. Theron sidestepped, drew the blade from his own hip in one smooth motion, and buried it beneath the man’s ribs, twisting once before he pulled it free. The smell of copper reached me.

I’d seen people fight before. I’d fought for my life plenty of times. But watching him was different, efficient in a way that should have only frightened me. It didn’t.

I knew without a doubt, those men would take their last breath tonight by Theron’s hands.

The fourth swung a tankard at his head. Theron caught his wrist, slammed it down onto the table hard enough to shatter the cup, ale and blood spraying across the wood.

Theron hadn’t raised his voice once. Hadn’t broken a sweat. There was something terrifying in how easy it was for him, how little it seemed to cost him to take apart four trained soldiers in the time it took the rest of us to process what was happening.

The fifth soldier hesitated, sword shaking in his grip, eyes darting between his fallen men and Theron’s face. The room had gone so quiet I heard the candles hiss.

“Like I said.” Theron’s voice was low, blood dripping from the blade in his hand. “I can protect the stones.” He pointed at the only surviving soldier. “Tell your queen you came across pirates. If you tell your queen I protected the very people she asked you to end, I will know. And I swear on the gods I will kill your mother and father in the middle of the night. And if you have a wife and children, I will kill them all. Then I will come after you. Do you understand?”

He nodded, trembling, then ran out the door.

The merchants who’d flattened themselves against the walls found their way back to their tables. Nobody spoke above a murmur. Nobody looked at Theron. They just drank like the last ten minutes hadn’t happened.

Theron waved a hand at the bartender, who gave him a curt nod. They must know each other, or he’d come here often.

Jina relaxed her shoulders. “I think I bit through my cheek.”

Minha sheathed her dagger, looking at the bloody bodies. “We’re not paying for this. They’re at fault.”

Nobody argued about her statement. But I had a feeling Theron would compensate the tavern owner.